OCR-G-PA-450.OCR.Morrison
Stewart E. Morrison
April 15,1999
Dear Mr. Price:
Your postcard representing the 397th Bombardment Group Association came to me as a big surprise. I originally lived in New Jersey where after the war I moved three times in the state. Then I moved to Texas where I have moved twice. I applaud your diligence in tracking me down to my present address.
In reading your card,l can appreciate the tremendous job it must be to try to locate all of the members of the 397th.
I wish I could claim to be an important member of the 397th, but actually I was transfered from England (Eighth Air Force) to replace one of your prop specialists who accumulated boocoo points and had gone home early like a good part of your maintenance people. We were engaged in getting the B26's ready for flight to Germany for storage. The pilots that had to fly them insisted that they be in top shape before they would take them up. (Maintenance had gone to hell since the war ended.)
We lived in houses surrounding the field, burning furniture to keep warm. Eventually, we wound up in tents, paying the Frenchmen who were given the mess to run, for some decent food to eat. From there we shipped out in December in 40 and 8 boxcars complete with straw to Le Havre for the trip home. We arrived in New York in December 45 at Xmas time
I remember the B26 was called the Flying Prostitute because of it's hot takeoff and landing. Your missions in support of ground troops were extremely dangerous and I'm sure your group earned it's Presidential Citation many fumes over.
My transfer to the 397th was my second trip to France from England where I primarily worked on P51 's, P47's, and P38's. I volunteered to go to France with a team to set up an emergency strip on an abandoned German field below Dunkirk. ( which was still held by the surrounded Germans.) This was for bombers and fighter escorts that could not make it back to England due to fog, fuel, damage, or injury problems. ( Sometimes we felt they just wanted to see France .~) On our flight over at Xmas we landed in Belgium just about Adolf decided to start the Battle of the Bulge! That was one wild time it took us four days on foot to find out where the hell we were supposed to be.
Thank you for jagging my memory of a long time ago, and I wish you success in your efforts to locate more of your group.
With fondest regards -
,Stewart E.Morrison
12095119
SGT MOS 687
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